KIIT B.Tech Review By Affan Usmani

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology is situated in Khorda, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. KIIT campus is approximately 700 acres of land. It is for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering, biotechnology, medicine, management, law, fashion, rural management, architecture, journalism, computer application, and sculpting. KIIT also has a research and development wing that collaborated with various research organizations. Students from different states of India come to study at KIIT. It was ranked first in India in the year 2020 ARIIA Ranking. KIIT has also won the AwardsAsia 2020 declared by times higher education. KIIT has an urban culture, KIIT also attracts students from out of India like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Turkey, etc.

The admission is based on the rank obtained in the entrance test held by the Institute itself. The candidate must have obtained 50% marks in intermediate (10+2) science. The candidate must have PCM as a subject in (10+2) to enter any engineering course.

I joined the Institute in the year 2015 and graduated in the year 2019 as a Civil Engineer. I appeared for the entrance test held by the Institute in the year 2015. You need to have physics, chemistry, and mathematics in (10+2) to be eligible for this course. Then the Institute will call you for counseling probably in June. I secured a rank of 24599 and after securing a seat in the civil engineering branch I was asked to deposit a check of amount 70,000 Rupees after our respective checks were deposited we were given a laptop of Dell latitude 1450. You don’t have to return the laptop once you graduate you can keep it with yourself.

The total tuition fees of the institute are for the B.Tech course is Rs. 14 lacs (it may vary). The institute also offers an integrated course of B.Tech and M.Tech together. The duration of the integrated course is 5 years. You can also apply for a change of stream at the end of the first year if and only if you get your overall CGPA in the first year 9.5 or above. There is a total of 8 semesters and every year consists of two semesters. It is not that difficult to score high grades in the semesters. The Internship process starts from the third year and the university does not provide you with any kind of opportunities for the internship. You have to search for the internship program either in your hometown or anywhere else. Every year KIIT organizes workshops in various prestigious government colleges like IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi. When I was in my second year Kalinga organized the MEGALITH workshop in IIT Kharagpur. The trip was funded by the students themselves. The winners were awarded prize money. To appear for the internal exams one must have 75% of attendance. If you are not able to clear the internal exams then you can appear for these exams either during the normal working days or during the summer vacation. The same rule applies to the absentee.

Though our faculties mainly belong to Odisha we had many other professors and lecturers from all over India. Most of the faculties are Ph.D scholars and also they were highly qualified in their respective fields/departments. The lecturers always come up with new and innovative ideas to teach and motivate so that no one would get bored during a lecture in the class. They were very helpful. The faculty member used audio-visuals so that we could get a good understanding of the subject and pay keen attention to it. But the dean and associate dean were not open to the new ideas from the students they were a bit harsh.

Every year we used to have 2 months of summer vacations. In 6 semesters we got the minor project and in the 7th to 8th semester we got the major project. I was pursuing civil engineering and the faculty of the civil department was very impressive and keen on helping. My experience on the major and minor projects was not so good not so bad. Luckily I got a lenient faculty member. To be fair I had a fair share of quarrels a couple of times with some of my faculty members.

The College boasts of hundred percent placements in their catalogue but that is not the case. But 90-95% of only computer engineering and information technology department gets placed. If the company which are known for core they only take the female students and the students who knows computer software and coding knowledge. There is no point of sitting in the HR round even if you are selected or you have cracked your written test for the interview. The companies who come for interview are Infosys, Accenture, DLF, Wipro, Bentley, Twintech and core companies like Larsen and Toubro, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Ashiana Construction etc. but they only took females and few males who were willing to do only computer work besides their actual core work.

The maximum package in 2016 was Rs. 6.25 lacs per annum. This package was offered by an IT based company. No core companies are offering this much in Kalinga Institute of Industrial technology. There is one upside to it if you have done masters then companies may offer you more package as in the year 2018 a student from mechanical and civil got their jobs at Rs. 12 lacs and Rs. 8.6 lacs packages per annum respectively.

In this institute, there are both AC and non-AC hostels. The fees of the AC hostel is Rs. 45,000 and that of the non-AC hostel is Rs. 35,000 per semester which is of 6 months. In AC there are two types of hostels depending upon the bed which is three seated and two seated beds. At starting of the semester we were forced into a room with 4 students as there was a rush of students in the opening semester and after two to three months we were shifted to the different hostel in which we got our separate beds and our separate cupboards. The mess is quite nice but the food was not that good. Out of the three meals, only breakfast was palatable. On some nights the dinner was so horrible that we had to order from outside.

One thing I like about the mess that they changed the meal routine every three to four months. Out of every hostel, the two seated hostels were the posh one. The bathrooms in the hostel were clean, hygienic and they were big too. There was a Wi-Fi connection 24/7. One thing that was good about the hostel that I didn't notice any sort of ragging during my graduation. At the admission, we got a laundry bag for the laundry service and bed sheets, a mattress, two pillows, pillow covers, buckets, and a mug. You can take all of these items with you when you graduate or you can leave them behind, it’s up to you. The charges of the laundry services were included in the hostel fees you don't have to pay extra fees for the laundry. The laundry van used to come twice a week to collect our clothes. In my hostel on every floor, there was a water cooler installed.

The infrastructure of KIIT is highly impressive. KIIT University is divided into four blocks north, south, east and west block. The engineering, NIFT, MBA, and architecture are located in a single block, this block is the most beautiful block of all, the rest are not so beautiful and are Messy too. The bike and car parking are allowed only for seniors which are a final year and PG students. There is one thing that I like about this university, the freedom that we get. Independence to do our stuff and no one bothers you about anything unnecessarily.

The campus is divided according to their numbers mainly campus-3, campus-7 and campus-13 are engineering campuses. Campus 7 consists of an auditorium and open hall theatre. The various campus consists of open hall theatre, campus 3 consists of only two open hall theatres. There are very large gardens on campus 3 and campus 7 there is a very beautiful garden which is known as the Rock garden. There is a huge sports ground which is on campus 15 and the best thing about these campuses is that in every campus there is one cafeteria with delicious catering services.

Campus life in KIIT is very posh. In these 4 years you will fall in love with the institute. The best thing about this University is that they don't miss any of the festivals of any culture. At the end of the year KIIT fest is organized and at the starting year an event is organized specially for the newcomers known as fresher. In the KIIT fest 2016, DJ snake and artists like Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan and many more talented musicians and artists came to perform. That was the best year of my entire college life.

We also had many comedians come up on the stage like famous comedian Zakir Khan. It rightfully boasts a beautiful and scenery campus. Amidst lush green gardens and fancy and beautiful foot paths, KIIT has the evenings that you would most likely never forget. Hostels are comfortable except the mess. We try to change the routine of mess here and there but to no avail we couldn't do any better to change the mind of our warden. There is one drawback that a lot of people may have had hostel in one campus and there class in another campus and their lab in another one, so it’s could be quite hectic.